The Magpies ambushed the home team in the first quarter, kicking the opening five goals, and were never troubled in the 17.14 (116) to 8.10 (58) victory.
Five talking points: Brisbane Lions v Collingwood
The only sour note for Collingwood was the second-quarter knee injury to defender Nathan Brown, who was caught awkwardly in a marking contest by teammate Harry O'Brien.
Brown was wrestling Lions skipper Jonathan Brown when O'Brien came in as the third man to spoil. Brown fell awkwardly in the contest and limped from the field in the hands of trainers clutching his reconstructed left knee.
The injury comes in Brown's third game back from his reconstruction last year and continues a woeful run of injuries for Magpie defenders that includes Chris Tarrant and Ben Johnson.
Post-match, Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley allayed any serious fears though, saying the early diagnosis was for medial ligament damage.
"When Browny goes down you fear the worse because he's had some wretched luck," Buckley said.
"Our medicos believe he's going to come out of it better than he might have otherwise so we'll have to wait for the dust to settle and see how exactly that falls."
The win was Collingwood's (5-2) fourth straight and entrenches it in the top eight ahead of Friday night's Grand Final rematch against Geelong at the MCG.
The Magpies were hungry and relentless all night and showed glimpses of the form that took them to the past two Grand Finals.
Steele Sidebottom set the tone with a blistering first quarter that netted him 15 of his match-high 35 disposals.
He had plenty of mates, with midfield maestros Dane Swan (34 touches and two goals) and Scott Pendlebury (33) warming into the contest beautifully.
Pendleubry was kept quiet by Lions' tagger Andrew Raines in the first half, but when Raines moved to take Swan in the second, the Brownlow medallist cut loose.
He took Raines to full forward, took three marks in three minutes - kicking two goals - and stifled a minor Lions' revival.
Buckley said there were signs of Collingwood's best football.
"That was a lot closer to how we want to play," he said.
"I think we've progressed steadily throughout the year. I thought our intensity in defence was 10 or 15 per cent up on where we were last week and that gives us the opportunity to perhaps be more attacking."
It continued a stretch of almost two years since the Lions beat a top-eight team - ironically Collingwood in round 10, 2010 - and left them with just nine wins from their past 47 matches.
They were best served by Jack Redden (28 touches and eight tackles) and defender Matt Maguire, who did a terrific job on Collingwood brute Travis Cloke when he was moved to him in the second term.
Lions coach Michael Voss said Collingwood's midfield was far too good.
"Their real good players around the ball were far too good," Voss said.
"We weren't able to secure the ball, use the footy or get our hands on it enough to be able to hurt them the other way."
COLLINGWOOD 6.4 9.7 12.12 17.14 (116)
BRISBANE LIONS 2.1 3.7 7.9 8.10 (58)
GOALS
Collingwood: Goldsack 3, Cloke 2, Sidebottom 2, Sinclair 2, Swan 2, Wood 2, Didak, Keeffe, Shaw, Wellingham
Brisbane Lions: Brown 2, Karnezis 2, Merrett, Black, Polec, Rich
BEST
Collingwood: Sidebottom, Swan, Pendlebury, Maxwell, Beams, O'Brien
Brisbane Lions: Redden, Maguire, Black, Hawksley
INJURIES
Collingwood: Dawes (virus) replaced in selected side by Yagmoor, Brown (knee)
Brisbane Lions: Hanley (hamstring)
SUBSTITUTES
Collingwood: Nathan Brown replaced by Peter Yagmoor in the second quarter
Brisbane Lions: Pearce Hanley replaced by Dayne Zorko at half-time
Reports: Nil
Umpires: Donlon, Kamolins, Armstrong
Official crowd: 27,926 at the Gabba
The views in this article are those of the author and not necessarily those of the AFL or its clubs
